5 great reasons to give Dry January a go this year

After weeks of excessive eating and drinking over Christmas and New Year, people all over the country are giving up alcohol in January.

As well as helping to raise money and awareness for the charity Alcohol Concern, here are a few other fantastic reasons to give your body a break from booze for 31 days.

Your wallet will thank you

A bottle of wine with the food shop, a few drinks on a night out and a couple of tipples after work - it all adds up.

You might even be surprised at just how much extra cash you could save by giving Dry January a go, as according to Alcohol Concern the average person spends a whopping £50,000 on booze in their lifetime!

You'll get your weekend back

Do your Saturday and/or Sunday mornings normally involve you feeling a little worse for wear? If that sounds all too familiar, give Dry January a go and swap your cocktails for mocktails and claim your weekends back. By doing so, just think of all the tasty breakfasts and brunches you could indulge in, all before 11am.

But it's not just breakfast that you'll reclaim. You could take the dog out for a brisk walk before breakfast, book yourself in to an early park run, or even get all your weekend chores done and dusted before midday on Saturday. Win, win.

You'll be raising money for a good cause

Dry January isn't only about ditching alcohol for a month. It also involves people raising money for Alcohol Concern, which uses donations to help protect families and individuals from drink-related problems. It also drives a conversation about alcohol; why we drink it, what does it do, and how we can reduce the harm it causes.

According to the charity, Alcohol Concern, a loved one in the UK is lost to alcohol every hour - so there’s never been a more important time to help out, raise money and educate ourselves about alcohol.

You'll have time to try new things

With all that extra time on your hands, now that your Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays aren’t focused around the pub, you can find a whole range of much more interesting things to get involved with.

When was the last time you went to the cinema to see a new film? Or invited your friends round to try something from one of your new cookbooks? You could even try getting tickets to a comedy gig, enrolling in a language or craft class or getting back into that bit of DIY that's been on your mind for months. The world really is your oyster.

You'll be cutting down on calories

By not drinking alcohol, you'll also be refraining from taking lots of unnecessary calories on board. Did you know that a pint of lager has about the same calorie count as a packet of crisps? And according to NHS England, the average wine drinker takes in around 2,000 calories from alcohol every month.

So if you're trying to cut back on calories in January, not drinking alcohol is a no-brainer. Plus it might change the way you think about drinking and the calorie-count of your drinks in future months.

For more information about signing up for Dry January or Alcohol Concern, visit dryjanuary.org.uk.